The Shocking Cost Of Bus Repairs
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
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This poor guy had the unfortunate predicament of breaking down out of state. $22,000 and two months later he was finally back on the road. He was charged the highest price i have ever heard of for a blower and turbo with labor of 40 hrs. Old vehicles you never know what you are going to come across but this sure seems very high priced.
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When we look at the cost of buying a bus, we may as well just add the cost of towing it to Scott’s place to get it up to road worthy condition for years and years of trouble free use!
If I was to purchase a bus, I would pay for Scott to come and inspect it before I complete the transaction.
In this case even with a 5k tow to us he still would have saved probably more than 5k. And our hourly labor rate is more than they charged.
Thats a no brainer,,,,,,,,seems these other shops don't have competent mechanics or they screw the owner,,, either way,,,your risking your life just with the simple repairs
I did that with 5/6 busses with Scott back in the day of his traveling Silversides, including a flight for him to ft lauderdale then ride to N carolina and back.. all were buses i was purchasing to rescue and get them back on the road again safety...
Great greasy times!!! Non stop laughter...
There a lot of rip of shops every where. 75 percent shops that rip u off
Anytime the brake lights cause the running lights to come on the first thing I check is the brake lights bulbs. I've seen the filament's in the bulbs short over to the tail lights several times. Next would be the wiring at those brake light bulbs and any trailer wiring that someone has installed.
.
“…the first thing I check is the brake lights bulbs.”
Word.
That exact thing happened to my old mid-nineties Chevy Astrovan (don't laugh: when it comes to lightbulb wiring schemes it’s essentially the same thing in all vehicles.)
There was some really weird combination of light-actuation anomalies (not unlike what this fellow in the video described), and after a while I just turned the whole mystery over the local Dealer shop, which wrestled mightily with the seeming-problem, too. For a while.
Then one morning the shop foreman called, saying the truck was ready. And from our day-before check-in conversation relative to when he called me to come pick it up, it was obvious the problem had been solved in ten minutes. So when I got there I asked what it was, and the Lead said just what you described: a shorted-out brake light.
sonofabitch. No way. I was reluctant to believe that so I asked the guy if he still had the bulb, that I’d like to see it. “I thought you would”, he answered, and he pulled this bulb out of his pocket: all silvered up on the inside of the glass from the short. All of those problems stemmed from that one thing. Bulb replaced: every weird problem resolved.
sonofabitch: learn something new every day.
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I agree. Had a mci5 that drove me nuts for a whole day until I found a bulb filament shorted internally. Crazy thing was both filaments would still light during a light check.
Had a car that did this. Smashed bases (tips) on the 1157 bulbs touching opposite contacts in the sockets.
Found 2 out of 4 bulbs, same car. Never seen that before.
Agreed, start simple.
I've seen bad grounds do something similar. My father had a pickup that the brake lights worked as long as he wasn't using the headlights. If the headlights were on, the taillights would go completely out when you hit the brakes. I had to put a ground wire on both taillights and run it to the frame.
I drove GMC buses for years for the local county transit company. I had one coach that had an "only when driving" air leak that took a bit for the maintenance shop to find.
It ended up being a small rip in an air bag that sealed up against the inside cone when the bus suspension was down but opened up as the bus rose up and the bag unrolled off the cone. It would open and seal as the bus traveled.
I am an independent industrial automation technician. I have seen industrial customers get taken that bad as well. I think it's an epidemic for all technicians in the industry. I had a customer tell me that a spindle drive unit was over 15K parts and labor and the machine would be down for 3 days... I was called in as the second opinion. He took pictures of the electrical cabinet and sent them to me. I had a reman. drive in stock and I installed it and had his machine running in less than 3 hours. He was impressed and then said to me "Ok, how badly are you gonna screw me?" I smiled and told him "Are you OK with 8K, all in?" I gained a long term customer, very professional relationship and I earned his respect. He had his office admin. print me a cheque before I could even walk out the door...
6:41 - This happened to me one in a pickup truck... The cause was both filaments of one tail/brake bulb were in contact with each other. Step on the brake, and the voltage going through the brake filament would also conduct to the tail lamp filament, which powered all tail lamps and everything on the tail lamp circuit (license plate light, parking lamps, gauge cluster backlighting) without popping a fuse. Always try the cheapest/easiest solution first!
Yup, happened to me once with a forklift.
Been a forklift tech for 20 years and never seen it before or since.
I fly a private jet, we make great efforts to take it to a shop that has been very good us. I feel that if I owned a bus/coach like this I would make great efforts to bring it to your shop for any and all maintenance. This is not the first time you have made a video about a shop just raking an owner over the coals. Thank goodness for you!
The more I watch. The more I see how intelligent you are working on these buses.
That shop's name needs to be put out over every possible social media as a complete ripoff. Spread the word.
He needs to sue them. Not kidding
Sounds like the biggest HVAC company in ironwood MI they got me for almost $4k all they did was replace a few water valves and a few other things that retail were $675.00 they had 3 hours labor. What I found is that marked up the parts 600-700% over a plumbing supply retail? They didn't fix it right and wanted to come back! I told them where to go after that don't bother even stepping on my property again!!
19 grand is absolute scumbagery. Holding him hostage while he’s out on the road, for profit. I figured 5 to 6 hours myself. He really needs to sue the shop that charged him that much money.
Ahhh please the 8/92 is a marine engine they have intercooled and after cooled turbos and cost upwards of $8,000 and can be tricky to find.
@@zacb7427this! these things are commercial vehicles there designed for a fleet maintenance program not Jim bob and Nancy to see the countryside in. Hence why he stays busy doing basic maintenance on these bus’s that a fleet owned and maintained operation would stay on top of
I would never ever ever purchase a bus until Scott purchase checked it. It's a fixed price well spent. Period. Great stuff Scott!
With as many rip-off shops out there, you could take your bus to BGM, get fixed correctly, leave a $1,000 tip and still come out ahead.
Crooks in the industry is why when one of our commercial coaches break down out on a charter we’ll pay whatever towing it takes to get it back home if we can’t fix it roadside.
What’s the most you’ve had to pay for a tow back home?
@ 4K
@@prevost8686 not as bad as I was expecting. This video makes me want to make sure I've got a decent mechanic in each corner of the country, so I don't have a 5 figure tow bill.
Whenever a shop sees a "Private Coach" they jack the prices up. They figure 1) their rich 2) they don't know anything about diesels.
Yes yes yes finally a bus with a manual transmission that beautiful bus is a keeper for generations to come👍🏿👍🏿 I really miss as a kid taking trips with my parents on greyhound buses in the 80's that had manual transmission but get this I would beg my parents to sit up front so I can sit just to right of the driver just to see him change gears 😊
Same here brother! :)
When the front lower marker lights come on when he steps on the brakes that indicates a crossover from a rear brake light bulb filament is touching the tail light filament and then powering up all markers and dash indicator lights.
I wouldn’t be second guessing anything Scott and his team told me or worked on, he is honest and knows exactly how to fix it at a reasonable price.
I’m an owner operator truck driver and getting any work done on the road is terrible from poor work and terribly jacked up prices for labor and part
My first check when theres a short between stop lights and park lights is to check if a wrong bulb has been fitted in the rear. Often a single filament where a dual filament is needed will short the stop and tail pins together.
A suggestion for the lighting issues. Check all the tail light lamps for a short between elements. I had a similar problem with the parking lights and instrument panel lights before. Every time the brake pedal was depressed, the parking lights came on along with the gauge illumination. It was a brake light bulb that had burned out and fused the brake light element to the tail light element.
I would think that this man has a lawsuit or state business case for being price gouged or ribbed for the total fee they charges and for the proof he shoddy labor that leaves the bus in the state of disrepair because his payment hadn't corrected the whole issue .
I would talk to he state attorney , the better business bureau , and private attorney .
What's sad is that Scott see's a lot of busses with similar cases i.e. work done improperly, not done at all, or exorbitant prices charged for work that was done supposedly. Bus and diesel RV owner beware.
Sadly many RV and Bus Service shops see dollar signs when a retired couple pulls up and ask to troubleshoot. Being honest mechanic brings lot more business home, then being dishonest service garage.
@@bartfranklin1358 I own a skoolie andi do all the wrenching myself. Just like Scotty says, go to harbor freight and get yuhself a set of tools and do wat you can.
I think most guys could change a turbo and a blower do it urself.
Right now as we speak I have torn down my gassers upper end and redoing the gaskets in a dead end street .
It's not a big deal, it's life experience.
Sounds like a lost ground on a taillight and it’s backfeeding through the other filament into
The brake light circuit.
Usually a voltage feedback into other circuts causing other lights to illuminate is due to ground problems. Basically the current passing through the brakelight filiment is following a path to ground through the tailight filimant and energizing the clearance light bulbs to find a path to gtound. I'd look at the grounds on the taillights to start.
Would love to see that shop repair order.
I’m glad the company was called out by name. Maybe that company will explain themselves and offer a partial refund to what they should have charged. Even if it was a rush job, they had to pull off other jobs, that is still ridiculous, 10K in Parts and 10K in labor. If you don’t want the job, just say so, don’t take advantage of someone. Maybe there is more to the story. Thanks for the videos.
I think this will hit the Diesel Repair Company, a good name takes a long to get, a bad name comes quickly!
Taking on a job you know you probably shouldn’t often bites you in the ass. Maybe they did it to help the guy out etc.
@@BusGreaseMonkey well they helped him out of a lot of cash anyway
I don`t have a bus or anything like this, I come here to learn new things of everything Scott works on. Pretty amazing.
If you break down during a trip, you become pray to the vultures. I understand how stressing it is, but the best you can do, is to shop around by phone, until you find someone reasonable to help you.
My insurance provides me with a tow to a mechanic for free, wherever I breakdown. Once a year only. I can't claim the service twice. But it is worth the extra price I pay.
The marine industry says, hold my beer.
Wait till you get in the aviation industry, hold my keg…
Unreal! Thank you for the value you bring to the community! Hello from Southern Wisconsin, sorry to hear you had a bad experience. A really bad one...
When I used to work for a wheelchair manufacturer, we would get calls for batteries not lasting longer than a year. Most of the issues boiled down to after build mods, being 12v attached to one of the batteries. The light dash light issue in most of my experiences has been bad frame grounds. I fixed them by running a wire back from each tail light assembly to the ground point for the battery.
Hi Bus Grease Monkey,
Here are some comments on the charging system. First, a fully charged 12 volt battery should read 12.66 per battery. So, 2 batteries at 12.66 equals 25.32. If the battery pack reads less than that, with no loads, it is depleted. I would never replace one battery at a time. They should both be changed out together. Run the engine at 1500-2000 RPM, the charging voltage with no loads should be around 26.6 to 27.6, maybe as high as 29 volts if it hot outside. With the engine running, with full 24 volt electrical loads on, the charging voltage should be at least .9 volts above the battery pack voltage not running, and no loads. Anything less than .9 volts above open circuit voltage, the batteries are contributing to carrying the loads, and slowly depleting. I'm curious to know if the alternator has a 12 volt tap to charge the battery that is carrying the 12 volt loads? Here is what Interstate battery says is normal states of battery charge; 12.66=100%, 12.45=75%, 12.24=50%, 12.06=25%, 11.89=0% charged.
Judging from the looks of the battery cables, I'm guessing there is a charging system voltage drop somewhere in the system. Clearly there are a lot of possibilities, good hunting.
Check the lightbulbs I hade one filament broke and shorted the system out
Scott, when compressor is constantly cycling , a couple of things I have found are , governor bad, compressor valves are ‘coked’ up and not sealing, and if air dryer is the old AD-2 , a split o-ring on purge valve. When I changed only 1 battery, it always went to the rear (12v side), and the non-junk battery to the front(24v side). As for the brake light situation bad or corroded connection or ground. Hope this helps the gent.
And now yall know why tantacles always says never buy a boat. And never buy a bus
And with that being said this is why most bus companies have their own on base repair facilities, its not often you see a bus getting fixed in an aftermarket shop like it is for trucks
Scott, won’t be long until you’ll be having a Bluegrass Festival up there on Grease Monkey Mountain! Kevin is a good man and a hell of a singer. Glad you are able to help keep him rolling… safely!
I had an air governor doing what he described and I had just installed it with a new air compressor. I put on another new governor and it cured the problem for me. Sorry to see the shoddy work they did after ripping him.
This might be the problem.
Check valve on the outlet of the drier will drain only the wet tank with every cycle and the compressor refills that small tank quickly.
Check all the bulbs to make sure the right bulbs are installed. I've seen people put an 1156 bulb in an 1157 socket and cause current to bleed from the tail light circuit to the brake light circuit and vice versa.
Fun- as soon as I heard the job I guessed a number, and it was bang on with your estimate! Hard to suggest a lesson to be learned here - the fact is a lot of people aren't mechanically inclined, and they HAVE to rely on the mechanic they hire to be honest. No one can expect them to educate themselves - especially when it comes to buses with 2-stroke Detroits that they're using as RVs. It sucks, but the only people who can protect themselves fully are those who already have an extensive mechanical background
It's like that in EVERY industry now......from making/ repairing commercial airliners to building roads and even restaurants now do half ass work......top notch prices. Nobody takes their job seriously anymore and want to make the mortgage off one job.
probably late to the show, but Ive had 1157 bulbs break one filament and lay across the other and cause all sorts of feed back, and the same for the trailer plug.
That’s pretty much my first touring bus out of college as a musician. Great times but scary, as semi truck drivers just disregard you.
someone should probably get pine hollow auto diagnostics to have a look at this as well for some advice. that electrical error is literally right up Ivan's alley. this is also a case of "fired the parts cannon", I think...the EXPENSIVE parts cannon.
Dam...I don't think i've ever written a check for that amount. Just when I thought my pickup truck repairs were expensive.
I can’t even watch this! BGM is a honorable and trustworthy shop. Wish there were more people like BGM‼️🙏😇
Scott
Check the tail lights for a poor ground that can show like those symptoms
I've heard from several 18 wheeler drivers and they all say you don't want to break down on Wisconsin .
I wouldn't even drive through Wisconsin in a car .
Hiway Robbery is what is was. Sorry that happened to him. With the lights issue. Check to make all the rope bulbs are in place on the bus. Sometimes that makes the lights work crazy
8:02, I'm going to guess someone put the wrong bulbs in, single filament bulb in double filament socket?
Make several copy's of the wiring diagram and buy a set of colored pencils to mark wires by system!
A lot of shops double the price on parts and charge 1.75 x book time for repair
Exactly and then turbos can cost $8,000
The tow cost was fair. I spent 13000 to tow 5 miles. Major rip off in Northern Pa.
I had the exact same thing happen. Didn’t discover until I had traced out all the wiring first. Doh! I don’t many vehicular double filament bulbs anymore
If you can afford that bus and can pay that big of a repair bill, yousurely can afford a lawyer to recoup your money. That kind of bill is just outrageous, profane, vile and sickening!
A Sucker is born every day.
A 5 speed!!!!!
Those were an absolute nightmare to drive in NYC.
I loved em on the road, despised it in local traffic.
If you own and old bus you either should be able to work on it by yourself or be wealthy enough to not care.
Vengeance is mine says the Lord.. gotta keed reminding myself of that when dealing with people like these 🤬
I was told to switch the batteries front to back every so often, even with the Vanner equalizer. I wish my bus had a manual transmission, also you need to check the door lock latch that engages when the parking brake is released
Check the front leveling valves on the bus. When i worked for greyhound those mci were notorious leveling valve leakers. Or a air bag
Maybe electrical issue is an 1156 single pole bulb in place of an 1157 It connects the 2 circuits together
Great work guys hope the bus comes out like new👍
You probably already know, but when he hit the brakes, the marker lights come on. That usually indicates a ground problem somewhere.
And I feel bad that that nice gentleman got hosed by a shop in a neighboring state to mine. I like the red and black colors.
Glad to see you guys have sponsors now.
And they are for things we might use.
Think I’ll head over and check out the wallet.
Currently you always always need to get at least 2-3 written estimates ,, and be very knowledgeable on your job to weed out the dishonest people . Unfortunately in this modern day trust/ honesty is in short supply
Blower failure is unusual,blower drive usually.Turbo and blower,most unusual.
That's not surprising anymore. A nationwide truckstop you know ❤'s. Charges 40% mark-up on parts the order for trucks. And guarantee they charged him full book time on turbo replacement. Then full book hourly rate for the blower separately. We're getting ripped off all over the place.
That wallet being compatible with the Apple’s find my app is really slick!
Wow. I mean, just WOW. For a short period of time I toyed with the idea of getting a coach but I never pulled the trigger. These videos have shown me that I made the correct decision, at least for the amount of money I have to play with. A friend of mine bought a used class A and told me, "The only trouble with this is when you pull into a shop they think you have a ton of money." That very well may have been the case with this poor coach owner. Nineteen grand for a blower replacement that wasn't even done correctly! There are endless holes to pour money down with these things, and unfortunately there's only one BGM. Thanks but no thanks. BTW, I really like this MCI with the 5 speed--I'll bet it's fun to drive. After watching a ton of these videos I think I'd lean to the MCI's anyway...except for maybe a GM Buffalo.
You have a air, governor or air dryer or a line going from the governor to the air dryer that is leaking. That will cause the air compressor to cycle.
My estimate yesterday was $25k, I'm glad the rip off was less, but still was double what he should have been charged, including the towing.
Well done Steve you are a fair trader but also an enthusiast which makes a difference when I had a CAT engine I would try to go to a CAT Mechanic some guys were Cummins or Detroit keep fighting the good fight
Boy, talk about a Holy Hey Lance moment..
I remember a few cars over the years with bad grounds in the lighting circuits. They behaved much like this bus, seeming to ground through other circuits.
He could have had it towed to your place under still be under 19,000 lol
Kevin, Man that is terrible, Scott will take care of you 100%
#1 reason why I bought a non-airbag schoolbus to convert, far more manageable costs.
I had an experience like that with one of my semi trucks. It had a bad air compressor on a mercedes freightliner diesel. They wanted $3000 to replace it. I asked how they came up with that price and the part was around $1500. I told them it was only $750 full price from freighliner dealer and reman was even cheaper. I told them no but they aaid we already started on it. It was without my permission. It would have been cheaper to take it somewhere else so i told them no. They ended up knocking it down to $2200 so i reluctantly agreed. If it wasnt local to me i would have fewer options and they would have been able to charge what they want. This is why i do most of my own repairs even if im not as quick or efficient at it
Try looking for a bad earth on one of the stop / parking light assemblies. Common problem on trailers and the like.
File a claim with the bbb and have them help you get a refund. The bbb has helped me every time and I always came out on top and got what I wanted.
19 grand he could have got a nice fishing boat to tow behind that RV
Or a full engine and have it installed
I'd say it's a competitive price the 8/92 has a after cooled and intercooled turbos and depending on wat kind of turbo they can run like $8,000 then you got to ship it, blower maybe $3000 max then driving out to do the work.
@ with a two year 60 thou warranty 🤪🤣😂
Thanks for the video.
Even in Canada that's a ridiculous price.
Contractors are screwing people left and right, now too. We've gotten quotes from 3 highly respected contractors for a basement rebuild after a flood. Prices we got was $79k, $54k, and $39k. The highest and the lowest were the most thorough in their quotes
From a machinist and mechanic's perspective, a small piece of me dies too every time I hear about honest people just trying to do their due diligence to get their rig fixed and getting their wallet absolutely destroyed.. on top of unacceptable work. If I'd spent about $22k in towing & repair just to have to pay again to get someone else who actually knows what they were doing to correct previous shop's work, I'd be taking someone to small claims just out of principle no matter the cost. Shops like that need to go away but unfortunately that's the name of the business these days. Shit like that is why nobody trusts diesel mechanics anymore. That sucks man, I feel for your customer too
You have a bad ground wire. It’s feeding back through other electrical paths.
19 grand is more than a whole engine overhaul would cost
Happy that I fix the bus myself, Scania 1975 😂
Wisconsin has laws regulating motor vehicle repairs, which means a mechanic cannot overcharge you without violating consumer protection statutes.
Filing a Complaint:
DATCP: Contact the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
No matter what type of vehicle, boat, motorcycle, aircraft, house repairs. There's always some bad person or company trying to screw you over.
I think that he would be better off purchasing a DC/DC converter to run the 12v side of the system. That would solve any battery imbalance issues.
Im the owner of this company. I just heard of this issue. Not from the customer but from a unknown source. Not exactly how this should happen. I will look into this personally. I've been in business for over 30 years and take a lot of pride in my and all my employees work and always stand behind all of are work. But we can't fix something we don't know about. This unit was at are shop for about two months. And has been completed and gone for over 4 months with no word from the customer. I personally didn't work on this unit but that doesn't matter. It was worked on at my shop and by my employees and if there is a issue with anything we completed we will make it right. We work on a lot of RV even though we specialize in truck and trailer repair. We don't charge more for RV repairs, versus truck repairs and there shouldn't be a different rate even though most shops due. We charge by the hour and we track every technicians hours. If the owner would call me or send me a email that would be great. I will repost here after i get to look over the entire work order completed.
Thanks
I talked to zach at your shop three days ago and he informed us other work was done beyond what we were informed from the client. He was going to check with you before sending us the invoice which he did about an hour later. Clearly other work was done beyond it and we will include it in the next update video on this job.
I’m a big eagle fan, but I like them all. This one is beautiful
I like Eagles too, but these videos have demonstrated to me that they rust quicker than others.
Good grief they fleeced this gentleman.
when you break down on the road, you're at the mercy of the shop, but people like this need to be run out of business. Tell the guy to post the repair bill on his FB page with no comments and just share the hell out of it. It makes me mad just sitting here thinking of it.
Everyone is entitled to make a profit, but you don't have to make it on one person.
The second I’m about to call it a night, I see this video. Guess I’m not sleeping yet
People sure try to take advantage of seniors 😢😢😢
Good grief, does the customer think that old relic is as dependable as a new coach? There's a reason most shops won't touch and old piece of crap like this.
That bus is more dependable than the new buses for sale.